Six football teams still in the hunt for an unbeaten finish

The list of unbeaten high school football teams in the region was trimmed by three Friday in a day of surpising lopsided finishes.

Perryville (3-1) lost for the first time this season at Park Hills Central, which is 4-0. At Scott City, the host Rams (3-1) had allowed just 13 points through three games, then gave up 42 points to Fredericktown (4-0) in a loss. And Festus, No. 3 in the SemoSportsWeb poll, lost to up-and-coming Fox 18-14 and fell to 3-1.

The last of the undefeated teams in Southeast Missouri are Farmington, Park Hills Central, Jackson, Crystal City, Hayti and Thayer. Of the six, Park Hills Central and Crystal City have emerged as the biggest surprises, and Demetrius Terry added an exclamation mark to the Hornets' strong start by running for more than 250 yards against Festus. At least half of that six-team pack stands a great chance of running the tables on the regular season and going into the district schedule at 7-0.

• Valle and Malden avoided the prospect of an 0-10 season Friday when both won, and formerly winless Cape Girardeau Central won for the first time Thursday. That leaves Grandview, DeSoto, Hillsboro, East Prairie, Portageville, St. Pius X, Caruthersville, Herculaneum and Salem as the region's only teams still looking for a win.

• Sikeston was 2-0 after early-season wins, but the Bulldogs have dropped two in a row, including a lopsided 42-0 finish against Jackson. It's not the kind of momentum Sikeston wants heading into Friday's home game against Farmington, ranked No. 1 in the SemoSportsWeb.com poll. The Knights hounded Hillsboro 37-19 Friday. See our gallery of photos from the Jackson Sikeston game here.

• Is anybody still unconvinced that Fox might be the real deal? The program hasn't had a winning record in so long that coaches weren't even sure when a Post-Dispatch reporter asked Friday after the Warriors defeated Festus 18-14. It was the first time this season Festus allowed a point this season.

"I don't think any of the other teams will take us lightly anymore," running back Alex Pisoni said. And why should they? Fox is 3-1 in the Mississippi Area Football Conference's Red Division, owing its only loss to Farmington in Week 1. The Warriors are in a Class 6 district with Mehlville, Northwest and Oakville.

• Chaffee picked up its second win of the season over a Walnut Ridge, Ark., team that was expecting its own breakthrough Friday. The Red Devils are 2-2 under second-year coach Charlie Vickery and have an intriguing date Friday with their biggest rival, Scott City.

• One basketball note: Chris Trimmer was Dexter's boys basketball coach last season and was at Ste. Genevieve before that. He left Dexter for a Windsor coaching job that put him closer to his family, but he recently resigned from that position because of Meniere's disease, a disorder of the inner ear. The Jefferson County Journal described Trimmer's off-the-court battle in a story here.